Cracks in the Kremlin matrix. The Stalinist order, the Putinist order; Russia’s culture of bureaucratic corruption

First posted July 10, 2013 Cracks in the Kremlin matrixPeter Pomerantsev enters the matrix of managed democracy that underpins postmodern dictatorship in Russia. A society of pure spectacle, with fake parties, fake opposition, fake scandals and fake action: this is the political technologists’ project, in which (almost) everything becomes PR. NB – the articles below provide insights… Read More Cracks in the Kremlin matrix. The Stalinist order, the Putinist order; Russia’s culture of bureaucratic corruption

6th December 2022 Dilip

Farewell to reality: Why we’re post-fact

This equaling out of truth and falsehood is both informed by and takes advantage of an all-permeating late post-modernism and relativism, which has trickled down over the past thirty years from academia to the media and then everywhere else. This school of thought has taken Nietzsche’s maxim, there are no facts, only interpretations, to mean… Read More Farewell to reality: Why we’re post-fact

6th December 20227th December 2022 Dilip

When reality hits the propaganda machine

Volodymyr Kadygrob Anton Tarasyuk Despite the bizarre and evidently distorted reality conjured by Putin’s media strategists, their propaganda has proved considerably effective even outside Russia. Not in the sense that many people in Europe believe in the Russian message. From a European perspective, Russian propaganda consists of nothing more than blatant lies and deliberate disinformation.… Read More When reality hits the propaganda machine

6th December 2022 Dilip

The tide is turning against autocracy

Opinion by John Avlon NB: As to why this political analyst fails to mention the glaring assaults on global democracy by the USA and UK, is something only he can answer. And as regards the fate of democracy in his own country, supposedly the leader of the ‘free world’, the less said the better. There’s a… Read More The tide is turning against autocracy

3rd December 20223rd December 2022 Dilip

Are we really prisoners of geography?

A wave of bestselling authors claim that global affairs are still ultimately governed by the immutable facts of geography – mountains, oceans, rivers, resources. But the world has changed more than they realise by Daniel Immerwahr Russia’s war in Ukraine has involved many surprises. The largest, however, is that it happened at all. Last year, Russia… Read More Are we really prisoners of geography?

19th November 2022 Dilip

Apollinariya Yakubova: The face of the woman Vladimir Lenin loved most is revealed

First posted May 02, 2015 She was described admiringly by Vladimir Lenin’s wife as the “primeval force of the Black Earth”, a revolutionary firebrand with sparkling brown eyes whose natural aroma was of “fresh meadow grasses”. It is no wonder then that the search for an image of Apollinariya Yakubova, considered by some to be… Read More Apollinariya Yakubova: The face of the woman Vladimir Lenin loved most is revealed

6th November 2022 Dilip

Sixty years ago, true statecraft avoided a nuclear war. We need that again over Ukraine

Jonathan Steele NB: While I appreciate Steele’s evocation of moderation and restraint, there’s just one big problem with this article. One man alone saved the world from nuclear war in 1962, and his name was Vasili Arkhipov, one of three senior officers in the Soviet nuclear-weapon equipped submarine, the B-59, off the Cuban coast, which… Read More Sixty years ago, true statecraft avoided a nuclear war. We need that again over Ukraine

5th November 20225th November 2022 Dilip

Towards the Flame

Review: ‘The End of Tsarist Russia’ by Dominic Lieven By Serge Schmemann Aug. 30, 2015 Dominic Lieven’s stated reason for this contribution to the centenary literature on World War I is to place Russia “where it belongs, at the very center” of the war’s history. Certainly the war proved to be at the center of Russian… Read More Towards the Flame

4th November 2022 Dilip

Russia’s genocidal propaganda must not be passed off as freedom of speech

Peter Pomerantsev I was in gorgeous, courageous Kyiv on Monday when the latest Russian missile shower hit Ukraine, murdering civilians and knocking out heat and light on the cusp of winter. Kyivans took it calmly. My meeting smoothly transferred from a cafe to the metro, where we chain-drank coffee and carried on under the sirens… Read More Russia’s genocidal propaganda must not be passed off as freedom of speech

16th October 2022 Dilip

Genocidal maniac Putin launches mass strikes on Ukraine

Andrew Roth in Moscow and Pjotr Sauer The victims were ordinary Ukrainians: those who died at the busy intersection of Volodymyrska and Shevchenko streets in Kyiv, at a downtown playground, or the hundreds of thousands now in homes without light, water and heat in cities across the country due to a barrage of Russian cruise missiles. But… Read More Genocidal maniac Putin launches mass strikes on Ukraine

11th October 2022 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: Russia